The present invention relates to instrumental chemical analysis. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and a method for sampling solutions containing soluble solids or high concentrations of dissolved solids.
Many manufacturing processes operate at elevated temperatures so that reactants and/or products at concentrations above the ambient solubility of the compound can be used. This method has obvious financial and environmental advantages. Furthermore, processes often produce a product or use a reactant that may be insoluble in one solvent but quite soluble in another solvent. Diluting the solid sample in the more favorable solvent produces a sample in solution which is easier to handle during analysis than the solid. In still other processes it is desirable to exclude the solid fraction in the process and simply sample the liquid phase.
Some existing sampling strategies make use of costly heat tracing to maintain the temperature of the sample to prevent it from precipitating from solution as the solution cools. Other systems employ various filtering strategies to exclude solids, but these filtering devices are seldom amenable to conversion into a device that will allow sampling of processes with high concentrations of dissolved or undissolved solids, or where the solid fraction is required to be sampled as well.